Consumers cautious but confident in fresh-cut

(May 26) Eleven-year-old Amber Brister’s eyes filled with tears as she talked to “Dateline NBC” about contracting E. coli 0157:H7 from a bagged salad she ate in September.

If she distrusts bagged salads more now, she’s joined by others — albeit just a small portion of consumers in total.

In fact, data shows that more consumers will be increasing fresh-cut purchases than those who will scale back such purchases.

After the “Dateline” report aired April 30, about 7% of consumers rated bagged salads as “not safe at all,” up slightly from the 5% who said the same in February, according to survey results released May 24 by Cambridge, Mass.-based Opinion Dynamics Corp. and Newark, Del.-based Produce Marketing Association.

Of the 21% of consumers who have generic concerns about fresh-cut produce, about 18% of that sample cite “health, allergy or germs” as their concern, up from 10% in February.

But fresh-cut produce sales should remain robust, said Kathy Means, vice president of government relations for PMA, citing additional research from the study.

Thirty-four percent of consumers said their fresh-cut produce purchases will increase in the next year, and 53% said they will stay the same. Just 8% said they will decrease.

“Although we were looking for information about ‘Dateline’ reactions, one of the best things is to know how confident people are, how many people are purchasing fruits and vegetables, that they’ve been increasing purchases and that they will continue to increase,” Means said.